CQC publishes community mental health survey

The 2012 national survey of people who use community mental health services has been published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), showing AWP's overall performance is 'about the same' as other trusts.

The Trust's overall scores are in line with most trusts for each of the survey's nine sections, which include crisis care, care reviews and medications.

AWP does not perform as well as other trusts for two questions in the 'day to day living' section -  whether service users had been asked about their alcohol intake and whether they had received any support in getting help with financial advice or benefits  - though overall AWP is 'about the same' as other trusts for this section.

The CQC has changed the presentation of the  benchmarked results for this year and trusts are measured against an expected range for their organisation.

Compared with last year, scores show a significant increase in AWP service users saying they received support in getting help finding or keeping work. However there was a fall in scores for four of the 46 questions: service users being told about possible side effects to medication; being given information about medication in a way that was easy to understand; finding their care review helpful and discussing whether they needed to continue using NHS mental health services.

The survey questioned people who received care between July and September 2011. A major redesign of community services has since been completed.

The CQC results are based on the responses of 270  community service users, 33% of the standard sample of 850 invited to take part (in line with the national response rate).

AWP again chose to increase the overall survey sample size this year (to 4750) and therefore asked one in three service users for their views. The full results from 1532 responses received are being used to inform plans for further service improvement.

Acting chief executive Paul Miller said, "We recognise that service users deserve the best and we aim to deliver an excellent service.

"These survey results place us on a par with other trusts for people receiving care in the months running up to the redesign of our community services. We believe the improvements made as part of that redesign are already bringing significant benefits to service users  and we are looking closely at these  results as we continue in our work to improve services."

The CQC report can be read here.